Criminal Justice News

Friday, September 25, 2015

A second Texas man has pleaded guilty to hate crime offenses
for his role in a Mar. 8, 2012, assault of a gay African American man in Corpus
Christi, Texas, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita
Gupta, head of the Department of Civil Rights Division, and U.S. Attorney
Kenneth Magidson of the Southern District of Texas.

Jimmy Garza, 33, pleaded guilty in federal court in Corpus
Christi to one count of conspiracy to commit hate crimes and one count of a
hate crime violation based on the victim’s sexual orientation.

During the plea hearing, Garza admitted that he and others
conspired to assault a gay African-American man because of his race and sexual
orientation.Garza admitted that during
the assault, he and his co-conspirators punched and kicked the man, and
assaulted him with various weapons, including a frying pan, a mug, a sock
filled with batteries, a broom and a belt.

Garza admitted that when the victim began to bleed, the
conspirators forced him to remove all of his clothing and clean up the blood
throughout the apartment.After the
victim was completely naked, Garza held a gun to the victim’s head, while a co-conspirator
sodomized the victim with a broom handle.During the assault, Garza poured bleach onto the victim’s face and eyes,
and struck him with a handgun.The
conspirators also whipped the victim on the back with a belt.

Garza acknowledged that throughout the assault, the
conspirators repeatedly called the victim racial and homophobic slurs, and made
other anti-black and anti-gay statements.

Garza will be sentenced on Dec. 9, 2015, and faces a maximum
sentence of fifteen years in prison.Garza is incarcerated pending sentencing.

On Sept.15, 2015, Ramiro Serrata Jr. pleaded guilty to the
same hate crime charges in connection with this offense.Serrata is scheduled for sentencing on Dec.
9, 2015.Serrata also faces a maximum
sentence of fifteen years in prison.

“The federal hate crime to which Jimmy Garza Jr. and Ramiro
Serrata Jr. pleaded guilty to was as shocking as it was reprehensible,” said
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Gupta.“The Department of Justice will continue to
use every tool at its disposal to vindicate the rights of victims of violent
crime.”

“The gruesome evidence heard in today's plea of guilty
underscores the importance of prosecuting hate crimes under our authority to
protect the civil rights of all our citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Kenneth
Magidson of the Southern District of Texas."These cases will continue to be a high priority of our
office."

This case was investigated by the FBI’s Corpus Christi
Resident Agency with assistance from the Corpus Christi Police Department.It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys
Jared Fishman and Nicholas Durham of the Civil Rights Division and Assistant
U.S. Attorney Ruben Perez of the Southern District of Texas.